CTT invests in Braga-based technology company that uses AI to serve customers
The company led by João Bento participated in the financing round of Agentifai, which specialises in customer support technology, through the group's innovation fund.
CTT – Correios de Portugal, through its innovation fund for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises, has invested in the technology company Agentifai, which has created a robot to answer telephone calls in companies and respond to customer queries on apps. The postal operator participated in the new round of financing for the Braga-based company specialising in artificial intelligence (AI) for customer support.
The company, founded and led by Rui Monteiro Lopes, caught the interest of CTT with its conversational AI solution, which is sold in Portugal, other European countries and the United States. “This investment in Agentifai is part of our Fund 1520’s strategy to accelerate investments in high-potential start-ups that are aligned with the priorities of our innovation agenda”, explained CTT’s Director of Digital, New Channels and Innovation, in information transmitted to ECO on Wednesday.
Nuno Matos believes that the postal operator was a pioneer in incorporating generative AI into customer support processes with the Helena chatbot and states that the company is convinced that “customer support is one of the fundamental pillars” of its value proposition, “not only as a service provided to our customers, but also as a strategic business offering”.
About a decade ago, AgentifAI created the voice assistant Alice (named after the acronym Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity) to understand natural language and communicate with consumers and customers of companies in sectors such as healthcare and finance. Today, it has over four million users and automates more than 55% of interactions. According to the company, it has reduced costs for hospital groups and banks by 50%.
In the case of banking, Agentifai’s solution allows users to make transactions, check their balance, make payments and transfers, among other services, while in healthcare apps, it can reschedule appointments, issue information on medical history, addresses and payment methods, and provide reminders by voice or message as it is integrated with medical systems. Its main clients include BPI, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Lusíadas Saúde, among others.
CTT will accompany the newly invested Agentifai through the 1520 Startup Programme. “We want to lead this technological transformation, which is redefining the way society interacts with services, and we believe that solutions such as Agentifai’s are essential to building more efficient, human and scalable experiences”, said Nuno Matos, Director of Digital, New Channels and Innovation at CTT.
Fund 1520, with an allocation of eight million euros, is financed by the group led by João Bento and managed by Iberis Capital in order to invest in seed (initial), A and growth series, mainly in sectors such as e-commerce, logistics, communications, fintech, retail, advertising and sustainability.
